Clarity

by Nicholas Smith

I woke up 

after a night 

  of reading 

      Deleuze 

and found 

    I had 

contracted 

    schizophrenia.  

   my aim 

        was 

now in two 

   no

three 

no 

several.  

I began 

  to write odes 

to projects 

  whose sense 

was in their 

       nonsense 

and promise: 

  radical 

  destabilization 

  of 

  customarily 

  observed 

  boundaries.  

Once momentary 

    insanity 

was put 

    to flight 

by full digestion 

    of 

    hallucinogens 

    I had unwittingly ingested, 

        I began to pray.  

I prayed until the apocalypse 

   eclipsed 

space and time 

                                 at their limit.  

 ‘til

Eternity

    reaching back 

 blew over 

    times 

window.  

‘til

      The

Kingdom of Heaven 

   dripped down 

   and raised now 

to height ungraspable.  

‘til

    light more immense 

than any number 

       of 

dimensions 

      can hold

        took hold

       and sitting 

   just past 

the end of time 

  and top of space 

                I saw 

  before, 

   now, 

   and after 

        take hands 

      and walk together 

  in every direction.

---

Nicholas Smith is a part-time writer, full-time father, and most-of-the-time to all-of-the-time husband. He has an MA in Creative Writing and English from University of Illinois at Chicago, and his work has been previously featured in St. Katherine's Review.